Collector's Corner: University of Toledo Ward M. Canaday Archives

CAPTION:  Exhibit catalogs promote the Ward M. Canaday's archival collections. Medicine and health in northwest Ohio is a major focus, as is business and industry, which include the records of Libby-Owens-Ford, Toledo Scale, and the Toledo, Angola & Western Railroad.  I'd like to explore the women's social history collection.  

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The Ward M.Canaday Center of the University of Toledo, located on the 5^th floor of the main library, houses some great collections that tell the multifaceted story of Toledo, Ohio, and the growth of Northwest Ohio. 

Barbara Floyd, director of the Ward M. Canaday center, shared her knowledge of these collections at the May program of the Sylvania Area Historical Society. An attentive audience of history lovers took it all in and asked good questions throughout the presentation. 

“The collections support the research of UT’s faculty and students as well as scholars from around the world,” professor Floyd noted.  They include a fabulous rare book collection (Ward Canaday's special interest) and materials about women’s social history, African-American literature and Southern literature, Toledo’s business history and, of course, the University’s history. “And this is just the beginning.”  The archives’ holdings include nearly 50,000 volumes, 4000 linear feet of manuscript collections, and over 5000 feet of UT’s archival material.  The archives are online at Toledo’s Attic, www.toledosattic.org. 

To publicize its efforts, the Center has produced several exhibitions built around its collections. These  exhibits have covered such topics as Toledo imprints, Henry David Thoreau, Eudora Welty, Ezra Pound and the Imagists poets, UT architecture, 19^th century medicine, the Arts and Crafts movement, and the business and industry that shaped the city. 

In the fall, the Center is mounting an exhibit called "Letters of Luminaries," mining its collections for the letters of some of America's and the Toledo area's major novelists, authors, and political, business and social leaders. Toledo's Canaday Center, our collector's corner, is a treasure trove for scholars, local history researchers, and community members.